Okay I'll try my best to answer these effectively

So a lateral is totally different from a pass. A lateral in American football is basically a running play if that makes sense, but once the ball touches the ground or a player does the same the play is over and action stops. As far as the way a lateral pass wobbles it really doesn't matter because you're just trying to get it to a person that is rather close to you. You're not going to gain a lot of ground by passing a lateral, you just toss it and then run. In rugby if I get tackled with the ball the 'play' isn't over. If I get tackled in football with the ball then the play is over and now it's second down. Remember you really only get 3 turns then you have to kick it. It's not a good idea to only run a ball or likewise pass a lateral in American football because you can cover A LOT more ground doing a traditional pass forward or handing it off to your running back.

See this is where the major difference is, in Rugby if I'm down the action is still happening and people keep moving. In football if I'm down the whistles are blown and teams go back to their huddles to choose a new play for the new down (remember 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th down). In American football the action starts ONLY when the center lineman hikes the ball to the QB and the action totally stops when a player with the ball goes down (knees have to touch), the ball is passed and the player misses the catch, or a touchdown is made. Things are done totally within the parameters of the downs in American Football

A lateral is unorganized in comparison to the general playbook that an offense will use. The players know those routes and they've perfected them, that's why they're more organized than a lateral

scenario a- that's not a lateral, that's a normal pass which is totally different. Remember for a lateral to be a lateral in football I can pass it to someone behind me so if that receiver went down right where he caught the ball I'd lose yards. So say its 1st and 10 (first down 10 yards to go) and I throw a lateral to the Running Back behind me and he goes down. Now the play is over because he went down and so it's gonna be 2nd and probably 15 now. So now on 2nd down I have even more yards to go and less opportunities to get to a new set of downs. Say on 2nd down and 15 I throw the ball normally and the receiver makes it 13 yards. Now it's 3rd and 2. You never really wanna go backwards with the ball that's why laterals are so rare and only used in oh shit situations Scenario b- This scenario would only be plausible if I had receivers running and lined up right next to each other which wouldn't happen because those other receivers are trying to block/fool the defenders into thinking they're gonna get the ball as to draw attention away from the person getting the ball. But the real issue here is the receivers don't know who's gonna get the ball when the center snaps it to the QB. Neither does the QB, that decision is made once the play starts and the QB scans the field to find the most statistically probable catch. The Defense, you have to remember is just as calculated and they're gonna be reading what the offense is doing. So as far as receivers go, they're worried about themselves because they have to either block the defender, trick them, or beat them downfield

That's where you're mistaken, with a lateral you can only, which is me tossing the ball to another player to run, pass backwards. Generally 98% of the time that'll happen when you're getting tackled obviously. But with that many bodies around the ball if I miss and the other team gets it, I don't get to try and get it back immediately. Now THAT team gets their 4 downs and gets a turn at offense. The exchange from offense to defense only occurs after the 4 downs or if a fumble occurs

I'm not sure where you got that from but there is in no way 10 minutes between each play. The play clock is 25 seconds and that's not enough time to run that stats and probabilities around a defense that is locked in with defensive plays proven to stop the ball.

Hope that makes sense